Monster Paradise

Indistinct black sword shadows quivered like swaying tree branch shadows on the walls. Heavy black shadows swallowed up entire buildings as the Four-armed Sword Fiend shook its sword arms…

Just when many spectators thought Xie Lin had yet to complete his breakthrough and had no more power to fight back, a piercing blood-red glow lit up the few windows in the building. Almost at the same time, countless blood-colored lightning bolts spread through the house and lit up the entire space instantly.

On the building’s walls, countless blood-colored lightning bolts fought the black shadows. It was like a mad rave party where everyone was dancing their lungs out.

The battle between the blood-red gleams and black shadows only lasted for a moment. Less than two to three seconds later the entire building collapsed completely with a rumble and became a ruin.

The blood-red gleams and black shadows that lingered in the building vanished almost simultaneously. The blood-red light and the darkness from the black shadows disappeared at the same time and the entire area was once more quiet and calm.

Meanwhile, a silhouette in a black robe stood in the middle of the building ruins.

Under the moonlight, one could faintly see that the face under the hood was covered completely by a black mask as if it were obstructed by the surface of black water.

Lin Huang reappeared, looking as if he had taken no harm whatsoever.

Not only that, but his aura was also completely different than before.

Lin Huang, who had activated Sword Dao true meaning, gave the impression that he was an ultimate sword that had been unsheathed from its scabbard.

Many of the spectators present were sword cultivators. At the moment, they could not take their attention off Lin Huang.

“Such terrifying aura; he’s clearly broken through to Sword Dao true meaning!”

“So this is a powerhouse who has mastered the Sword Dao true meaning? I feel so puny standing before him!”

“I used to think if level-6 Sword Dao was an ever-flowing river, then Sword Dao true meaning should be an endless ocean. Now I realize I was wrong; Sword Dao true meaning isn’t an ocean, but a starry sky!”

Unrivaled God and the other three wore indescribable expressions. They had thought they would stop Xie Lin leveling up by attacking him before he had completed his breakthrough to Sword Dao true meaning. However, now it seemed like the plan had failed entirely. Xie Lin had clearly completed his breakthrough to Sword Dao true meaning.

What they did not know was that Lin Huang was only unlocking his Sword Dao seal. This process only took a second to complete. The boost in aura was misleading; it came from his unlocking the Sword Dao seal and his aura rising again. Even if his aura did not rise back to its peak, it would not affect his use of Sword Dao true meaning at all.

“What do we do now? Xie Lin’s completed his breakthrough to Sword Dao true meaning!” Forbidden Lamella asked the other three through voice transmission. He had been the first to fight Lin Huang out of the four of them so he was already a little afraid of Lin Huang’s ability. Seeing that Lin Huang had broken through to Sword Dao true meaning, he could not help but consider retreating.

“What else can we do? Do you think he’ll let us leave in one piece if we surrender now?” Frontier mocked.

“He’s only just completed his breakthrough, he’ll need time to get familiar with Sword Dao true meaning. Moreover, we have the sword formation phantom; our brute abilities aren’t below his level either. There’s still a chance for us to win.” Departed Feather was clearly unwilling to surrender.

After voicing their opinions, the three of them turned their heads to look at Unrivaled God who had yet to speak.

Noticing the trio’s stare, only then did Unrivaled God say slowly, “I feel that I can certainly lose, but I can’t retreat. I must maintain my Dao. To retreat even just a step might be a humiliation for my Sword Heart and I might not have the opportunity to achieve Sword Dao true meaning again! Therefore, personally speaking, no matter what your final decision is, I’ll go on with the battle myself!”

What Unrivaled God said gave the three of them considerable pause for thought.

As a weapon, a sword was used to advance and forge ahead in battle.

No matter what path of Sword Dao cultivation, if one did not dare to unsheathe one’s sword when facing enemies, it might leave an indelible shadow in one’s heart. When the time came, it would be really difficult for one to break through to Sword Dao true meaning.

After Unrivaled God enlightened the three of them about this, they all stood in their battle formation once again without hesitation.

“Charge!”

As Unrivaled God bellowed, the sword formation changed again.

In the void, the phantom Four-armed Sword Fiend plunged toward Lin Huang. Its four sword arms turned into scattered shadows all over the sky…

Lin Huang swung his sword too, a blood-red glow blossoming on the blade…

The power of that sword technique was completely different from before since he had now unsealed his Sword Dao true meaning.

The two silhouettes disappeared right after the collision. The next second, they appeared on another roof. Another head-on collision later, the duo separated and collided on the second roof after they charged again…

The entire space was completely filled with black and red light; other colors might not even have existed.

Rumbles echoed continuously. The spectators heard little else apart from the sounds of endless deafening explosions.

Buildings collapsed and disintegrated, turning into dust and ruins wherever the duo passed through.

The energy wave caused by the duo’s collisions forced most of the spectators to retreat up to a hundred kilometers away.

The endless strong winds sounded like a million demons moaning at the same time…

Lin Huang’s courage picked up; it was his first time fighting with such ability since mastering Sword Dao true meaning. The more he fought, the more at ease and elated he felt.

On the other side, Unrivaled God and the other three looked worse than before.

Maintaining this sword formation alone drained a great amount of Divine Power, with even more being drained during battle. Practically every time the sword formation shadow attacked, the Divine Power of all four was drained over ten times their full force.

Moreover, Unrivaled God, who was the core of the formation, carried an even greater burden as he used Divine Telekinesis to gather the sword formation integration and track Lin Huang’s movements and attack trajectory. The exhaustion on his spirit was certainly several dozen times more than a normal battle.

In less than five minutes after the battle started, the four of them were already feeling exhausted.

One party was fighting more and more courageously, while the other side was drained. From a fair match initially, Lin Huang had gradually taken control of the battle.

Sensing the exhaustion from Unrivaled God and the other three, Lin Huang did not immediately end the battle with an ultimate move. Instead, he was squeezing whatever remaining value he could from the sword formation shadow little by little.

This sword formation shadow integrated all of the sword techniques the four mastered. As they incorporated it with Sword Dao true meaning, he had seen many things that were worth copying and learning.

Just like that, the battle was ‘stagnant’ for close to half an hour because Lin Huang was holding back on purpose. If he were to fully unleash his power, Unrivaled God and the rest of them would have been defeated some ten minutes ago.

A message came from Warlord all of a sudden just as Lin Huang decided he would proceed to squeeze the remaining, limited value out of Unrivaled God and the rest.

“60 suspected BOSS quotas have been filtered out!”

Lin Huang did not bother wasting his time on Unrivaled God and the rest any longer after hearing that message.

After all, it was the last two days before the end of the Trial. A minute wasted here might lead his hunting one less BOSS.

At this thought, Lin Huang unleashed his full fighting power.

The battle sword in his hand suddenly emitted terrifying red sparks from its hilt. In less time than it took to breathe, the spark had transformed into a laser cannon aimed right for the sword formation phantom.

He had just used this technique not so long ago. However, it was at least several dozen times more powerful this round.

The diameter of the red spark was considerably bigger than before, with a faint black mist surrounding it. In the blink of an eye, the sword formation phantom, already slightly slower than before, was engulfed completely in a terrific shockwave which went through over a hundred buildings further away.

The dumbstruck competitors who were watching witnessed the buildings disintegrating and crumbling within seconds of impact.

The power of the attack had completely exceeded everyone’s expectations.

In barely the time it took for two breaths after the sword formation phantom was engulfed by the red shockwave, the sword formation of Unrivaled God and the other three disintegrated instantly. The four of them violently spat out a mouthful of blood, their auras plummeting. Their Divine Power was almost entirely drained; they could barely even stand now.

A moment later, the red glow in the air faded, leaving behind a faint smell of burning.

The spectators lifted their heads to look in the direction of where the sword formation phantom had been standing earlier. There was nothing there—not even a trace of aura remnant was left.

“I’m sorry, I have some business to handle so I have to end this battle with all of you in advance.”

Lin Huang sheathed his sword back into its scabbard while hovering in midair. He looked down at Unrivaled God and the rest who were now completely dispirited.

“You guys have already lost. According to the Trial rules, I can kill all of you and take your points but I’m giving you another option now.”

Unrivaled God and the rest had thought they would definitely die. When Lin Huang mentioned another option, they lifted their heads to look at him.

“I’m not asking for much, ten complete true god-level sword skill inheritances in exchange for one life! The four of you would add up to 40 sword skills. You can gather it yourself or you can buy it from others who are watching if you don’t have enough. Once the deal is done, as long as you don’t deliberately cause trouble for me, I’ll leave you all alone.

“But my time is limited now, so I’m giving you all three minutes to prepare. After three minutes, whoever can’t surrender ten sword skill inheritances will be killed.”

Lin Huang looked down at his wristwatch after he was done speaking. “The time starts now!”

The reason Lin Huang did this was that killing the four of them would definitely mean vengeance from the grade-7 organizations and they might come after him. After all, the four of them were proteges that the organizations had trained at the cost of countless resources and efforts.

If he really killed the four of them, he was afraid that even Death Sickle could not protect him. It would also be hard for him to move around the God Territory in the future.

He had considered directly retrieving the quartet’s memories. However, he figured that grade-7 organizations would probably have some unique techniques to protect their core members’ spiritual space. These four were protégés; there must be similar techniques implanted within them. That was why he had abandoned this idea.

Threatening the four of them to sacrifice something in exchange for their lives was feasible because all treasures and equipment above virtual god-level could not be used in this Trial space. Protective gear, even if it was a god sequence relic (heavenly god relic) would not work. Only a master god-level treasure could break the rule that Great Heaven had set.

If the four of them did have master god-level treasures with them, even if it was a disposable treasure, they would definitely not be willing to give it up just like that. Compared to such treasure, true god-level sword skills were something totally insignificant.

Naturally, the four of them might have mastered some life-saving techniques. However, all of them had drained their Divine Power and spiritual power in the attack earlier. They still could do nothing even if they had mastered any such techniques.

Lin Huang had asked for ten true god-level sword skill inheritances because he knew very well that for a grade-7 organization, true god-level sword skills were not considered to be anything overly precious. If they could trade true god-level sword skills for their lives, even if the number was a little excessive, the four of them would most probably agree to that.

“Ten is a little too much; can it be less?” Forbidden Lamella tried to bargain after thinking about it.

“No, I’ve said that you can buy them from others if you don’t have enough,” Lin Huang grinned and announced the time again, “You have 174 seconds left!”

“Alright, if you want ten inheritances, ten inheritances it is! I hope you do as you promised! You can’t attack us after the deal is done!” Departed Feather scoffed.

“Of course. There are many pairs of eyes watching. I can’t kill all of them,” Lin Huang smiled, nodding.

Departed Feather was the first to complete the deal after hearing that.

Frontier was next. He said nothing at all, merely gave up his sword skills expressionlessly.

The third one was Unrivaled God who tried talking Lin Huang up while smiling faintly.

“I have a question I’m hoping you can answer before the deal is done.”

“One true god-level sword skill per question,” Lin Huang said, not standing on courtesy.

Unrivaled God was stunned for a second but nodded in agreement anyway.

“My question is, did you only use two techniques from start to finish when you fought us?”

“You noticed that?” Lin Huang nodded cheerfully, “One of them is called Thunder Eclipse, it’s an extreme speed technique. All of the blood-red lightning bolts were derived from this technique. The shockwave that I used later is called the Sword Waterfall. It’s an extreme strength technique.”

Lin Huang was not worried that Unrivaled God would copy him. Even if he taught the techniques to Unrivaled God, the power that Unrivaled God generated would definitely be lower than his.

“Are there any other techniques?” Unrivaled God asked further in curiosity.

“That’s the second question, are you sure you want to ask that?” Lin Huang smiled while looking at Unrivaled God.

Unrivaled God hesitated for a moment and shook his head, “Forget it, I won’t benefit from knowing anyway.”

After that, he gave up 11 true god-level sword skills without hesitation.

The last one to complete the deal was Forbidden Lamella. He only had eight true god-level sword skills. He spent a hefty sum to buy two from Unrivaled God to make it up to ten, then gave them to Lin Huang.

‘I think asking for ten is too little…’ Lin Huang thought to himself, watching Unrivaled God handing over 13 true god-level sword skills so easily

However, Lin Huang was over the moon at obtaining 41 true god-level sword skills.

He was not concerned that Unrivaled God and the rest would seek revenge later. After all, robbing the four of them was not crossing the line for grade-7 organizations such as the Combat God Temple. To them, it was a grudge between juniors at most. Furthermore, it would be humiliating if such news were to spread. There was a much higher chance of them doing whatever they could to suppress this incident.

Moreover, he had Death Sickle supporting him. If somebody really came after him, Death Sickle would definitely be on his side. After all, as a grade-6 organization, it was rare for Death Sickle to have the opportunity to throw cold water in the face of a grade-7 organization. To Death Sickle, this incident was something glorious, not shameful.

After completing the deal with Unrivaled God and the rest, Lin Huang left at once without even a glance at the surrounding spectators.

The reason why he did not meet Fallen Star and the other two was to prevent Unrivaled God and the other three going after them.

Under Warlord’s guidance, he hurried in the direction of the closest BOSS impatiently…